The Shankill Road bomber, Sean Kelly, today ends his seven-year silence on one of the worst atrocities in 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland, claiming the IRA's murder of nine Protestant shoppers in the loyalist heartland of west Belfast was an accident.
Kelly, 28, who calls himself an ordinary guy caught up in the conflict, admits in a newspaper interview that he will be a target for loyalists for the rest of his life. But he is keen to stay in his native Ardoyne in north Belfast, and wants to do community work.
Kelly, whose accomplice Thomas Begley, 23, was killed in the October 1993 attack, tells the North Belfast News: "The fact innocent people died is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life. While we did go out to kill the leadership of the UDA, we never intended for innocent people to die. It happened, and I have to accept that the families of those people who were killed in the explosion will never forgive me. But it honestly was an accident and if I could do anything to change what happened, believe me I would do it."
The IRA intended to kill Johnny Adair, the Ulster Freedom Fighters' leader, believing his team would be holding a meeting upstairs from Frizzell's fish shop on the Shankill Road at the time of the attack. An 11-second fuse was apparently meant to detonate the bomb as they ran past after a warning was shouted.
But the targets were instead at a nearby cafe, and, in the reckless operation, the bomb exploded before shoppers could get out. Begley, posing as a fish salesman, was bending over the bomb as it ignited early, and was blown to pieces. Kelly, also in white overalls, was at the door. One rescuer who was unaware who he was recalled him trying to walk off as he was dug from the rubble, scarcely conscious. His release sparked rare unity among rival loyalist groups. Graffiti close to his home reads: "S. Kelly. We can wait. UVF-UFF."
Kelly, who lost the sight of his left eye and power in his left arm in the explosion, says: "I just want to get on with my life like everyone else that got out of jail. But I would be fooling myself if I thought that loyalists would not try to kill me at some time or another."
He was one of 86 convicted terrrorists freed eight days ago as the early release scheme, a key plank of the Good Friday agreement, reached its climax. Among the 428 prisoners to benefit are 143 life sentence prisoners.
The jubilant scenes which greeted the mass release from the Maze prison have exacerbated unionist disenchantment with the agreement. Several pundits believe unionist backing for it has dropped from around 55% in May 1998 to less than 40% now, suggesting serious problems lie ahead for the political process.
Kelly tells the predominantly nationalist weekly paper: "I know that there are those people who will say that I have no right to talk about victims. But everyone has suffered, including those of us who have been to jail.
"I lost my close friend Thomas Begley that day. Like the other people who died in the bomb, he was a mother's son too.
"I do not want to see any more people dying or getting injured. I not want to see any more young men and women rotting away in jail for years."
Kelly, expected to attend a function in the Ardoyne last night to mark his release, continues: "I have supported the peace process since the beginning, and am fully behind the Sinn Fein leadership who have helped bring the peace process about.
"It wasn't because we wanted out of jail early. It is because we realised better than anyone that a settlement had to be found if this conflict was going to be brought to an end some day. I hope that day has now come."